[ad_1]
Geneva: The World Health Organization announced on Monday that Monkeypox will be renamed mbox, in an effort to avoid stigma caused by the current name.
Monkeypox got its name because the virus was originally identified in monkeys kept for research in Denmark in 1958, but the disease has been found in a number of animals, most frequently in rodents.
An increase in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May among MSM, outside of African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
“When an outbreak of monkeypox broke out earlier this year, racist language and stigmatization was noted online, elsewhere and in some communities and reported to WHO,” the WHO said in a statement.
“After a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term ‘mpox’ as a synonym for monkeypox. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is phased out.”
The disease was first detected in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has spread to humans since then mainly confined to some countries in West and Central Africa.
But in May, cases of the disease, which causes fever, muscle aches, and large boil-like skin lesions, begin to spread rapidly around the world.
The World Health Organization sounded the highest level of alert on July 24, classifying it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, along with Covid-19.
More than 80,000 cases
This year, 81,107 confirmed cases and 55 deaths from 110 countries were reported to the World Health Organization.
Where the dataset was known, 97% were men with an average age of 34; 85% identified as men who had sex with men, according to the World Health Organization’s case dashboard.
The ten most affected countries globally are: United States (29,001), Brazil (9,905), Spain (7,405), France (4,107), Colombia (3,803), and Britain (3,720). ), Germany (3,672), Peru (3,444), Mexico (3,292) and Canada (1,449). They account for 86% of the global number of cases.
A total of 588 cases were reported last week. Over the past four weeks, 92% of cases have been reported from the Americas and 6% from Europe.
Seventy-one countries have reported no new cases in the past 21 days.
It is up to the World Health Organization to name diseases, as it did with COVID-19.
The World Health Organization announced in August that it was searching for a new name for the virus, seeking suggestions from experts, countries and the public.
According to WHO best practices in disease nomenclature adopted in 2015, names should aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact.
Considerations include scientific relevance, pronunciation, and ease of use in different languages.
“WHO will adopt the term mpox in its communications, and encourage others to follow these recommendations to minimize any ongoing negative impact of the current name,” the organization said.
The one-year move is intended to avoid confusion caused by the name change in the midst of the global outbreak.
[ad_2]
Source link
